Here’s a little of the history of coffee from our friends at WIKIPEDIA:

It has been believed that Ethiopian ancestors of today’s Oromo people were the first to discover and recognize the energizing effect of the coffee bean plant. However, no direct evidence has been found indicating where in Africa coffee grew or who among the natives might have used it, or even known about it, earlier than the 17th century.

The story of Kaldi, the 9th-century Ethiopian goatherd who discovered coffee, did not appear in writing until 1671 AD and is probably apocryphal.

From Ethiopia, coffee was said to have spread to Egypt and Yemen. The earliest credible evidence of either coffee drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree appears in the middle of the fifteenth century, in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen.It was in Arabia that coffee beans were first roasted and brewed, similar to modern preparation. By the 16th century, it had reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia, Turkey, and northern Africa. Coffee then spread to Italy, and to the rest of Europe, to Indonesia, and to the Americas.

THE WORD “COFFEE”

The word “coffee” entered English in 1598 via Dutch koffie. This word was created via Turkishkahve, the Turkish pronunciation Arabicqahwa, a truncation of qahhwat al-bun or wine of the bean. One possible origin of the name is the Kingdom of Kaffa in Ethiopia, where the coffee plant originated; its name there is bunn or bunna.

The Story of Kaldi

Coffee History tells the story about a young Ethiopian goat herder, Kaldi, who noticed his goats behaving frenetically after eating some red berries from a nearby bush. Kaldi tried some of the berries for himself and found to his amazement that he felt awakened and began to dance around with his goats. Kaldi soon developed this into a daily habit, which was noticed by a monk from a nearby monastery.The monk tried the berries for himself, noticed the effect and had the idea of boiling the berries into a drink. The monks used this drink to help stay away during long religious services and the first version of coffee was born. This drink spread from monastery to monastery and then throughout the Middle East.

The earliest records of coffee in history use were between 575 and 850 A.D. when it was used as a food. The coffee beans were crushed into balls with animal fat and eaten as quick high energy snacks for long marches and during warfare. The fat, protein and caffeine in the balls provided energy and alertness, making an early form of energy bar! Coffee first began to be made into a drink around 1000 A.D.

There are three main types of Ethiopian coffee: Yirgacheffe, Sidama/Sidamo and Harar. For the “foodies” out there, here is an in-depth review on the nature of Ethiopian coffee as compared to others. http://www.coffeereview.com/article.cfm?ID=179

Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony

Another important part of Ethiopian culture is the coffee ceremony. When I travelled to Ethiopia, we were often treated to this wonderful custom, and it is a ritual of hospitality, friendship and respect. It is lovely to take time over the various steps of making the coffee, from the roasting of the beans, the enjoyment of the aroma, and the sharing of the coffee…often with popcorn or peanuts! It was a time to sit back, relax and just BE with people. The making of the coffee could take some time, so it was an opportunity to chat and really get to know each other.